Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Fixing Metrolift

This week we have an excellent guest post by fellow TEDx Houston attendee Katrina Moore, a long-suffering rider of Metro and the Metrolift system, with her insider's perspective and personal story of what's wrong and what's needed to fix it.

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I have been a member of a unique class of Houston citizens for well over a decade. In the hustle and bustle of daily commutes, I am one of the forgotten plenty. If you have ever ridden the Houston Metro system for an extended period of time, especially outside of the inner city, then you have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about. Now stretch yourself a little and imagine the daily life of one of Houston’s disabled, often elderly, pedestrians. I am here to tell you that the story can be pretty complicated and bleak.

I will use myself as an example, though I know there are many worse scenarios. I finally qualified for services from Metrolift about eight years ago. Though legally blind and unable to drive, I was initially turned down because I did not appear ‘blind’ enough in my interview. Services entail the following: free Metro bus pass, access to Metrolift buses and discounted cab service. Receiving these services was definitely liberating and I was absolutely grateful to have them.

Four years ago, I was offered a job teaching photography at a local private school. I was absolutely terrified to take the job because, until that point, my experience with my Metrolift services had been difficult to say the least.

Option 1 – Metrolift Buses
There was a long waiting list for the Metrolift subscription service, which provides prescheduled transportation to passengers who are going to the same place every day. Non-subscription service was not a feasible option either. While there is no waiting list, these buses are notoriously late for pickup and drop-off, and being a teacher, I kinda had to be there on time, every time. Not an option.

Option 2 – Discounted Cab Service
The discounted cab service is an interesting set up. Metrolift pays the first $8 of your cab fare, which gets you about 1 ½ miles from your front door. To get to my job, the remainder of my fare would have been $7, which came to $14 a day. Since my job was very part-time, the cost analysis did not hold up. Not an option.

Option 3 - Free Bus Card
Free is good, don’t get me wrong. If you are an Inner-looper, you may not know that outside the loop, the bus routes can get a little hairy. This was my daily commute. Walk to the bus stop, only a few blocks away, no big deal. Wait for a bus that was often up to 20 minutes late. Take a bus 15 minutes to 34th and Antoine, home of the methadone clinic and a sketchy neighborhood, to say the least. Stand at the corner for 20+ minutes. Take another ten minute bus ride. Walk for 6 minutes. Get to work. Repeat.
I spent close to 2 hours a day commuting to a job that required my presence for 2 hours a day.

The next three years came with a shift in paradigm. My schedule became less part-time but required me to get to work much earlier in the morning. As I am a mother, my priority was to get my daughter to school in the morning, before going to work. Option 3, no longer an option. I, then, was forced to turn to Option 2, a discounted cab fare. With more hours came more money and a $200+ monthly cab bill.

Many of you spend at least this much on gas a month, so the expense may seem justifiable. The issues with the discounted cab idea are numerous. Cab drivers are not employees of Metrolift, of course, but rather private entrepreneurs hired by various cab companies. They sign up to be Metrolift providers but are not required to accept Metrolift fares. This means that if a better offer comes up on the board, they will choose that fare. I have been told by a plethora of drivers that most Metrolift customers just want to go to the grocery store. This means that compared to an airport trip, these customers are small potatoes. This also means that if a convention is in town or, God forbid, the Rodeo, Metrolift customers may wait up to an hour+ to get a cab. This has happened to me an unspeakable number of times.

Metrolift cab users also have some strange rules that make life even harder. For some reason, you are not allowed to put in an order in advance, a privilege for other cab riders. This puts you in constant, direct competition with every other fare. You are also not allowed to request a specific driver; you take what you can get. I am not sure why these arbitrary rules are in place at all. Also, none of the drivers are screened or trained to help you. Imagine that you are blind and going somewhere you have never been. You finally get into your cab, and the driver asks, “So, how do you get there?” You then sit quietly in a parking lot while the driver searches through a Key Map, often with the meter running.

After working for three years in the same location, I was able to work out some of the kinks. Some of the most amazing cab drivers memorized my ID number and did their best to scoop me up whenever they saw my trip. I still made sure to call in my trip 1 hour and 15 minutes early to get to work on time and to put my daughter in the car of a neighbor 1 hour and 15 minutes before her school actually began. I also often waited for over an hour to get a cab to go home. All of this while teaching Middle School and suffering Houston traffic.

The reason I am telling you all of this? Recently, I have been hearing a lot about development in Houston. The potential for this city is seemingly limitless in the eyes of many. I admire all of the work being done to make this city cutting edge in so many ways. We, the forgotten plenty, also want to be able to join in, be a part of Houston culture, and take advantage of what Houston has to offer. The scenario I have described is only to meet a need, to work, but what about to live? What about the 1 ½ hour wait at the grocery store while meat goes bad or ice cream melts? What about getting to the theater or local galleries or to a doctor’s appointment?

I see only two options: either a complete reform of the existing Metrolift system or the development of a private enterprise outside of Metro’s seemingly incompetent hands. Imagine a website, with an online scheduler and calendar, where patrons can plan and pay for trips in advance: a system where those who need assistance can communicate with a caring and professional staff and be driven by trained and vetted drivers. In a city such as Houston, bursting with possibility, is it truly so hard to envision?

7 Comments:

Isn't another option to move to a location that is closer to your place of employment and required services? Where you live is a choice. I see disabled Houstonians riding scooters to the grocery store and getting around independently - because they chose to live in an area conducive to this need.

Most of us don't have transit services to our front doors.. but there is another great alternative called carpooling. Why not ask around your school and find a coworker to carpool with?

"Isn't another option to move to a location that is closer to your place of employment and required services?"Sure. Its always that easy. Just make it happen; I'm sure your own disability proves it can be done, right? Golly, gee! Just because the lady is legally blind doesn't mean she can't jump on a scooter! And car-pooling, man its so simple everyone does it! I guess she is spoiled having the "luxury" of the described transit service at her front door. My only question is, are you for real, Anonymous? Oh, by the way, most of us DO have transit service at our front door; its called a car.

A fully able individual cannot imagine what it's like to be blind or physically not able to accomplish everything we expect everyone with sight to achieve. It's ridiculous to design a city primarily based on the fully able and forget the huge percentage of people who cannot go or do what they want. I just came back from canyon country and found that many trails and vista points were accessible to wheelchairs, but in my neighborhood, someone bound to a wheelchair has to venture on the road with cars and trucks. Access to sidewalks is impossible, and drivers only care about a road they can speed on.

I agree with Ms. Moore. The city, Metrolift, the schools, churches, grocery stores, etc. need to abide by the law and provide the same services to those who need some adjustment in how they access those services.

On one hand, to respond to Anonymous... moving is not always an option. What if Ms. Moore was offered another job in a different neighborhood, would we expect her to move again. Move her daughter to a different school, or ask her to make whatever adjustment without any care for her disability. I personally know Ms. Moore and admire her for her accomplishments. She is not only asking the city and other agencies to do the "RIGHT THING."

I've been riding for 15 years,all they do is lie! Very unprofessional employees! They eat while on the phone,laugh and talk,and lie about where your ride is! They make you wait for them for hours,they'll only wait for you for 5 min.The worst shit I've ever seen in my life! They don't care anymore!

I read your story and the comments and it gives me cause for pause. You're an intelligent woman and have probably considered moving or any of the alternatives that others suggest. Of course they haven't stopped to think that you've thought of those alternatives as well and that there's a reason you live where you live which may be just as necessary.

I've had occasion to use the service as I must accompany my dad on his travels. Although I'm grateful for the service it has been a real challenge. Drivers are usually patient and respectful. However dispatch has been a real problem. Ive even spoken with supervisors that didn't complete tasks that I was assured would be completed as a result of totalled fouled up arrangements.

My dad has suggested that all dispatch personnel should initially work as bus drivers to give them a better understanding of the scheduling process. Hmmmm.....not a bad idea. Shelley

About Me

Social Systems Architect and entrepreneur with a genuine love of my hometown. I cover a wide range of topics in this blog - including transportation, transit, economic development, quality-of-life, city identity, and development and land-use regulations - and have published numerous Houston Chronicle op-eds on these topics. I'm a Founding Senior Fellow with the Center for Opportunity Urbanism and co-authored the original study with noted urbanist Joel Kotkin and others, creating a city philosophy around upward social mobility for all citizens as an alternative to the popular smart growth, new urbanism, and creative class movements. I am a native Houstonian, 6th-generation Texan, attended Rice University for my BSEE and MBA, and a former McKinsey consultant and adjunct faculty member with Leadership Houston. I am currently the founder of Coached Schooling, pioneering a transformational new approach for a more effective and engaging 21st-century K-12 education combining the best elements of eLearning, home and traditional schooling. CONTACT EMAIL: tgattis (at) pdq.net - send me an email if you would like to receive these posts via email, or see the Google Groups signup box below.